After this floor price, there was no cheaper old rice flowing out of the fiefdom. I don’t know if it was sold out, but the Rong family finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, after a short respite, the Rong family actually asked the Shi family to pay new rice.
The Shi family, who had never asked for an advance payment before, proposed to pay 30% of the grain price as an advance payment, based on the amount originally reported by the Rong family, which was the middle price of the new rice and the amount of grain they were required to deliver. This was in accordance with the general agreement between the two families.
This is not a small amount of money, and the Rong family can no longer afford it.
After two days of stalemate, the Rong family tried to find a way to raise money, but in the end, because they owed too much debt and no one was willing to lend on credit, they had no choice but to agree to terminate the contract.
The Rong family originally wanted to seek a large sum of liquidated damages and force the Shi family to bow their heads, but now that they have breached the contract, they are starting to play dumb.
At first, the whole city was told that the Shi family was too mean and that they had killed a rice merchant with whom they had cooperated for many years, taking advantage of someone's misfortune and acting like a despicable person.
Rules that have been established for many years are no longer followed. And so on.
After hearing these gossips, Sun Yanan sneered in his heart: You want to kill me with a stick, and you still blame me for dodging.
A lawsuit was filed directly against the Rong family for breach of contract and failure to pay liquidated damages. It is said that the last bit of liquid cash on the Rong family's account was also seized, waiting for the lawsuit to end.
At the same time, the rice merchants who had bought the old rice at the floor price began to sell the rice they had bought at a lower price. This was probably because the old rice was purchased from the fiefdom of Prince Guanghuai, and now the rice merchants were unsure of the attitude of the higher-ups towards this batch of rice.
Therefore, the rice merchant also planned to take the route of quick purchase and quick sales. After all, he bought the rice cheaply and the selling price was not high, so he just added a 10% profit.
Of course, countless people went to buy the rice once the selling price was announced. However, the Rong family couldn't help but shudder when they saw the price. If they sold it at this price, they would lose money on the rice.
Shang Huaitang has not announced the tax rate or levied taxes until now. One reason is that he wants to see whether there is still rice flowing out of Prince Guanghuai's fiefdom, and the other is that he wants these rice merchants to engage in a price war for a while.
Now Xuanyuan Hao has also received the approval. In the past, he was afraid that rice merchants would engage in price wars and harm the vast number of grain farmers. Now the new rice is purchased by the state at a protective price. It is an imperial order and not a small matter for his county to deal with.
Just like the Shi family, who were the first to receive the rice, if they hadn't sold the new rice by now, and the price was like this, they would definitely be anxious. But now they just watched the excitement and didn't panic. All the grain farmers in his county were not panicking either.
Shang Huaitang deliberately delayed the tax collection by a few days in order to allow his people to buy cheap rice for a few more days.
Such joyful and relaxed smiles. Many people used most of the money they had originally intended to use to buy rice to buy sugar and cloth. Some even took their whole family out to restaurants, where even if they only had a bowl of beef rice noodles per person, it was a luxury they had not dared to indulge in before.
Shang Huaitang felt upset. When would the people be able to eat such cheap rice all the time, with enough rice to eat their fill without any problem?
As the prefect, he spent most of his time traveling the county. Large grain farmers like the Shi family, who owned vast tracts of land, currently seemed to have the upper hand. Small, independent farmers often put in more effort, earning less, and facing a more difficult life. His grain-producing county was renowned for its rice-growing region because of both favorable timing and favorable location, and the support of the people. These large farmers certainly yielded higher yields.
For example, when it comes to irrigating fields, Old Lady Shi solved the problem for almost all of the Shi family's fields. The Shi family paid for canals, water wheels, and wells, so her family never had to worry about water.
If there was a dispute over water use, she had absolute power to resolve the dispute, establish rules and order, and use water very efficiently because they were all tenant farmers and serfs of her family.
There are also farm tools and oxen, which are also guaranteed by the master's family. Iron tools are expensive, and individual traders don't have so many suitable tools.
If there is an unexpected situation, such as insufficient manpower during the rush to harvest, the village heads and land heads under her command have to submit grain and report the general ledger to the master's family, and it is impossible for them to leave a large piece of land unharvested, so they will arrange manpower to help with the rush to harvest.
During his last secret visit, he saw a family that was attending a relative's wedding banquet and their donkey cart overturned and fell into a ditch. Four people in the family, a father and his two sons, broke their arms and legs. The harvest was about to start in a few days, and none of the main laborers in the family could go. However, because they were tenant farmers of the Shi family, the head of the village quickly made arrangements after learning about it.
Of course, this family was better off. According to the village head, they had to take turns helping out by paying back their labor and even getting food as compensation. But overall, this family wasn't worried.
If you were an ordinary individual, it depended on your popularity in the village. Would others be willing to help you even after a few days of exhaustion? Back then, even hiring temporary workers wasn't always possible, and the costs were substantial. And this wasn't a short-term job. A whole family needed to have their arms and legs repaired, which would take at least three months.
During a major disaster, the people under these large farmers fared relatively best. His county had once been plagued by insects, resulting in widespread crop losses, with some areas experiencing total crop failure. The Shi family's fields had yielded the best harvest, and despite the imperial decree reducing taxes and labor service, some crops still remained. There was no other way, as the border war was ongoing.
Old Lady Shi paid the money to compensate for labor service and bought whatever grains she could find. She probably had tens of thousands of people working for her, and after the disaster, a census showed they were all still alive. Though emaciated and pale, even the newborn survived, a near-miracle.
Old Mrs. Shi said that her land could not be without people, and it would become better if people were there. She just couldn't bear to see these people she was familiar with disappear, and protecting them was also protecting the Shi family. The land without people would be barren, so it was not that great, and she declined his commendation.
The country was so poor and ravaged by disaster, and those bastards on the border came to rob, steal, and kill civilians. When old Xuanyuan was on the throne, we lost battles and had to pay compensation. After Xuanyuan Hao ascended the throne, he gritted his teeth and continued to fight. The Duke of Fuguo was truly a ruthless person. Those battles were funded with the lives and sweat of the people. Fortunately, we won the final decisive battle, and we've been peaceful for years. Life now is beyond our wildest dreams.
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